KIEV, Jan. 14 – Ukraine’s political crisis deepened on Tuesday after opposition groups blocked the work of Parliament, accusing President Viktor Yanukovych’s party of failing to meet demands from protesters.

The failure to hold sessions of Parliament may have a serious economic effect for the government because its 2014 budget is not likely to be adopted on January 16 as it had planned.

“Any interim solution, such as the 2014 budget adoption, will help until the strategic issue of changing power is not resolved,” Oleh Tiahnybok, the leader of the Svoboda party, said. “The situation will worsen and could end up with a real disaster.”

The hryvnia, the national currency, plunged to its lowest level since October 2009 to close at 8.33 hryvnias per U.S. dollar, compared with an opening at 8.30/dollar.

The opposition groups attacked Yanukovych and his party for ignoring demands from protesters that have been holding street protests since November 21, 2013. The protests started after Yanukovych’s government decided to postpone integration agreements with the European Union in favor of closer cooperation with Russia.

"So far we have no dialogue,” Arseniy Yatseniuk, the leader of the opposition Batkivshchyna party, said. “There is a monologue of people who demand justice, and a wall of silence from Yanukovych.”

The blocking of work of Parliament was meant to be a message to Yanukovych to listen to the protesters, he said. Yatseniuk asked Parliamentary Speaker Volodymyr Rybak to deliver the message to Yanukovych.

“Go to Yanukovych and explain to him that the problem does not resolve itself,” Yatseniuk said. “We are on the threshold of a new wave of confrontation."

The protesters demanded resignation of Interior Minister Vitaliy Zakharchenko for ordering a violent crackdown on protesters last month.

Dismissing Zakharchgenko and other officials would be a good start to ease the escalating political crisis, Yatseniuk said.

“This could resolve the political crisis that [Yanukovych] has created," Yatseniuk said.

Some 50,000 opponents of Yanukovych rallied in central Kiev on Sunday to call the U.S. and the European Union to impose sanctions against Ukrainian officials that had ordered the crackdown.

The U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations is due to hold a hearing on Ukraine on January 15.

On January 7, the U.S. Senate passed a non-binding resolution urging the U.S. president and Congress to consider applying sanctions including visa bans and asset freezes against any officials who ordered or carried out violence against protesters.

Anti-government protesters have filled the streets of Kiev and other Ukrainian cities since November, when Yanukovych reversed positions and refused to sign a trade deal with the European Union, opting instead for stronger ties with Russia.

Since then, Moscow has promised to buy $15 billion in Ukrainian debt and cut the price of Russian gas to Ukraine to strengthen the struggling economy. (tl/ez)